I personally haven’t gone back to Anthem in a while, but for those sticking it out and hoping that BioWare can dramatically improve the game over the next few months, update 1.0.4 was another misstep from the company that forced them to quickly react with a server side hotfix.

The update does some important things, like let you replay story missions at higher difficulty to increase variety, getting rid of the loading screen when accessing the Forge to customise your Javelins, improved performance of weather effects, and a range of bug fixes. However, just as with previous updates, there were unintended consequences that pushed them to make further tweaks.

Previously these have seen the loot drops increase in number dramatically, with BioWare then turning them back down much to the chagrin of the community, but on this occasion it was the opposite. Despite the patch notes saying loot drops were increased, in fact players were failing to get the guaranteed Masterwork items from the end of Strongholds, while being flooded by low tier loot that teammates could now pick up for you. Both were unwanted, and overnight BioWare made the following changes:

You should now receive your guaranteed Masterwork items at the end of Strongholds.

You should now be able to pick up loot for yourselves, instead of it being picked up for you from a squad mate.

Here’s the rest of the patch notes:

Anthem 1.0.4 Update

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NEW FEATURES

Legendary Missions**:** Allows you to replay critical path missions again with a much higher difficulty level. One mission will be available per day that has no limit on the number of times it can be completed. These missions offer a new challenge and require team coordination to achieve victory! (READ MORE ABOUT LEGENDARY MISSIONS)

Elysian Caches**:** Earn Elysian Keys by completing daily challenges. These keys can be used on Elysian Caches, which appear at the end of each Stronghold after the boss is defeated to unlock vanity and crafting materials. Opening an Elysian Cache creates loot for each member of the Expedition. There are 67 unique vanity unlocks available, including vinyls, victory poses, emotes and arrivals. You will never get a duplicate vanity item! This is our first version of the ruleset for Elysian Caches in the game and we’ll look forward to your feedback and the data we gather from your play. (READ MORE ABOUT ELYSIAN CACHES)​

Loot Changes:

Chests now have a chance to drop additional items and crafting materials in Strongholds, Freeplay and Missions.

On GM1 difficulty and higher, Stronghold bosses will now drop more loot with a chance at additional masterwork and legendary items.​

Nvidia Highlights:

Added support for Nvidia Highlights to capture screenshots and game clips automatically:

Visiting and viewing overlooks

Defeating certain large creatures.

Performing multi-kills

Defeating legendary creatures

Discovering the Tombs of the Legionnaires

Defeating bosses

PC Settings:

Added Field of View sliders for various cameras in-game:

Ground FOV: Adjusts the field of view of the camera during on foot gameplay.

Zoomed FOV: Adjusts the field of view of the camera while your weapon is zoomed.

Flight FOV: Adjusts the field of view of the camera during flight.

Swim FOV: Adjusts the field of view of the camera while underwater.

Pilot FOV: Adjusts the field of view of the camera when out of your javelin.

AFK Timer:

Reduced the AFK auto-kick timer from 10 minutes to 5 minutes.

Nvidia DLSS Support:

Support for Deep Learning Super-Sampling is now available on Nvidia RTX-based video cards.

Performance:

Improved performance on gameplay effects that were updating or running often to reduce performance strain.

Example effects include things like:

UI

Weather

Time of Day

Level Art with Animated Props​

The Forge:

The Forge can now be accessed via the main menu while you’re in Ft. Tarsis or the Launch Bay.

There is no longer a loading screen when entering the Forge.

BUGS & ISSUES (FIXES)

​Freeplay:

Fixed an issue where a second pilot could enter the Tombs of the Legionnaires quest before acquiring the quest.

Fixed an issue where performance could potentially drop in rescue sentinel world events with outlaws.

Strongholds:

Heart of Rage: Fixed party gather that was sending players back to the previous arena.

Heart of Rage: Fixes to fog walls blocking access to enemies.

Heart of Rage: Removed fog walls that could prevent the player from progressing.

Heart of Rage: Fixed issue where late joining players would spawn in lava and in a downed state.

Temple of the Scar: Fixed issues with fog walls could prevent the player from progressing.

Tyrant Mine: Door leading underground opens when first player arrives now instead of waiting for all players to arrive.

Tyrant Mine: Fixed an exploit where you could double loot from the Swarm Tyrant.

General: Fixed an issue where strongholds were disappearing from the map, so they could not be selected.

​Missions:

Finding Old Friends: Fixed waypoint markers if player proceeds without collecting the relics.

Imposter: Removed fog wall where players can get trapped.

See in the Dark: Fixed performance on Xbox One X when getting close to the echo lock.

Matthias mission: Fixed pathfinding for Elementals that could get stuck behind a chest.

Fixed issue with cinematic freezing during the third Dax mission.

What Freelancers Do: Fixed ammo depots popping into the world.

Clarified objective text on how players can collect Corium.

Incursion: fixed a number of voice over issues.

Fixed a number of loot exploits in Matthias Legendary Contracts.

​General:

Respawn timer no longer resets after a revive attempt by another player is interrupted.

Fort Tarsis: Fixed an issue where the camera went under the terrain when getting a legendary contract from Matthias.

Fort Tarsis: Fixed an issue where Commander Vule could appear in two locations at once.

Fort Tarsis: Reduced the length of time NPCs glance away from player during conversations to stay more focused on the player.

Low health warning now correctly states “Low Armor”

Fixed grammatical issue in The Legion of Dawn library entry.

The First Cypher journal entry has been moved to the Cyphers section.

Audio: Cancelled audio when the player cancels out of launching an expedition.

​Gear/Abilities:

Fixed text for several Masterwork items that caused incorrect % values for ultimate charge, the functionality has not changed :

Ranger Frag Grenade (Last Argument)

Interceptor Venom Spray (Viper’s Bite)

Fixed text in the Forge where statistic bars for gear was showing as “Status” when it should say “Effect”:

Acid Effect

Ice Effect

Fire Effect

Electric Effect

Fixed an issue where the Spark beam visual effect would not be present when turning away from the player using it.

Fixed Masterwork Gear so that they now progress the Uncommon, Rare and Epic challenges of that Gear.

Javelin Components:

The Mark of Ruin and Amulet of Winter Storm Masterwork components should now correctly be applying their respective bonuses, have their corrected text and icons, and should be functional.

Fixed an issue with the Mark of Clarity Storm component showing a 0 sec cooldown, now correctly shows 1 second.

Fixed text for Interceptor Double-Edged Inscription component to be more clear on effects:

“Increases all damage dealt by X% of base and reduces damage resistance by X%.”

Fixed text for several Masterwork items that caused incorrect % values for ultimate charge, the functionality has not changed :

Badge of Devastation (Masterwork Ranger Component)

Emblem of Destruction (Masterwork Colossus Component)

Fixed an issue where the Ablative Shielding (Masterwork Colossus Component) was not correctly granting the additional armor and shields noted in the text. This is updated on the player stats, but may not be resolved for the UI stat bars for the component.

Fixed an issue where the amount of armor segments displayed on the player HUD was incorrect when compared to their actual armor values. This is only the UI half of the reported “health bug” problem.

Fixed an issue where players could load into an expedition without having all of their inscription bonuses properly loaded. This would result in various problems (less shields, health, max ammo, etc) on the Javelin. We believe this should resolve the non-UI aspect of the reported “health bug” problem as this should now correctly load javelin health/shields.

Fixed a problem where a player could be more easily killed through shields and armor when first entering the game for the first time on a new client build.

Fixed an issue where swapping weapons at the start of the Storm Ultimate would give you a full heal without using the Ultimate charge.

​Creatures:

Fixed an issue where the lightning effect and abilities would leave a shader effect on the Korox creature unintentionally.

Fixed an issue where defeated creatures would sometimes go back into idle ragdoll positions unintentionally.

Additional reduction and tuning to health of The Monitor boss fight in the Heart of Rage stronghold

​Inscriptions:

Corrected several inscriptions where the magazine size was referred to as “clip”. Fixed to say “magazine” or “mag” (e.g. +X% Weap Mag Size”).

The hip fire inscription bonus will no longer be applied to Sniper Rifles.

The “Support +X% Luck” inscription has had its text changed to “+X% Luck”.

The Weapon Reload stat inscription was not correctly applying to player weapons and has been corrected

Fixed text on Blast Damage inscription so that it no longer includes “Weap” in the text to more clearly convey that it applies to all blast damage not just to weapons.

The text for Shield Refresh and Shield Delay inscriptions were incorrectly swapped on items and have been corrected. These inscriptions will now reflect the intended effect:

Shield Delay: Increases the speed at which your shield recharges

Shield Refresh: Reduces the time between when your shield breaks and when it starts regenerating

The “+X% Pistol Ammo” inscription has been updated and now specifically references the Heavy Pistol “+X% Hvy Pistol Ammo”.

​Other:

Fixed a number of issues that could cause the game to crash

Players can now “Junk” items much faster in their vault.

Daily/Weekly/Monthly interaction points now directly link the player to the Cortex entry

Fixed a number of issues that would cause players to be unable to interact with objects or players.

Match consumables now sort by rarity then alphabetically

Quickplay instances will no longer be allowed to spawn into missions older than 15 minutes.

Fixed an issue where a small number of players could not craft items and would continue to receive Common (white) and Uncommon (green) drops after hitting level 30.

OTHER FEATURES:

​Masterwork Changes:

Doubled the rate at which Masterwork gear with multiple charges regain charges:

Ranger – Venom Darts (Tactical Onslaught)

Colossus – Rail Gun (Garred’s Hammer)

Interceptor – Cluster Mine (Bitter Harvest)

Storm – Ice Storm (Winter’s Wrath)

Storm – Ball Lightning (Seal of the Open Mind)

Fixed several exploits related to Masterwork and Legendary drops that were allowing unintended drop-rates when player was downed.

Added a new audio effect for when a Masterwork / Legendary item drops in-game.

​COLOSSUS

Colossus Components:

Ablative Shielding:

Increased buff to 40% for 10 seconds (was 20% for 5 seconds).

Grand Entrance:

Improved ability to reliably trigger on heavy impacts and air melee slams.

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